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Saw sparks North Hudson fire

Residents of a North Hudson home are staying with relatives following a basement fire on Sunday.

The home, owned by Julie Evenson, is at 323 Third St. N. The Hudson Fire Department arrived on scene at 4:45 p.m. and found a fire in the basement. According to acting fire chief Jeff Dabruzzi, the fire appears to have started from a spark thrown from a table saw and was contained in a small area. The fire did, however, fill the home with a large amount of black smoke.

Dabruzzi said the extreme cold complicates things for firefighters. “The number one thing is once you start your hose, you can’t shut it off. If you do, it will freeze almost immediately and there is no way to fix it. You also have to watch closely for hypothermia. When you have guys coming out of a space where the temperature is several hundred degrees into way below zero, you have to have a place where they can warm up immediately. That’s why we had another department on standby so we could rotate the crews if necessary.”

Dabruzzi said Sunday’s fire only took his men minutes to “knock down.” They were on scene for a little more than an hour.

Doug Stohlberg has been part of the Hudson Star-Observer since 1973 and has been editor since 1987. He worked at the New Richmond News from 1971 to 1973. He holds a bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota.